This invention relates to document handling machines and more particularly to mechanical adjustments that can be made to such machines to change their set-up and adapt them for different sizes, shapes, and forms of documents that the machine will be required to handle.
Many current document handling machines such as inserting machines, for example, must be shut down to make adjustments to a sucker which pulls inserts from a hopper. A mechanic must estimate roughly what adjustments are to be made in an up-and-down position, an in-out position, and a tilt position of the sucker so that it will perform properly when a new set-up is required. After making the initial adjustments, the machine is turned on and samples of the inserts are passed through the machine to test the set-up position of the sucker to see if it is performing properly. This sequence is generally repeated many times before the mechanic finally adjusts the machine accurately enough so that it will perform satisfactorily. This results in a significant loss of machine time while these adjustments are being made and also requires a skilled mechanic to perform the adjustments. It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a means and method whereby adjustments can be made to suckers or other such devices while the document handling machine is in operation.
An advantage of a preferred embodiment of the invention about to be described is that the above-discussed adjustments can be accurately made by a machine operator who need not be a skilled mechanic.
The structure of the invention, therefore, provides an economic benefit of increased productivity over the current means where the machine is shut down to make adjustments; and, a savings because skilled mechanics are not required to make the necessary adjustments to the machine.